The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method which automatically assigns transaction amount according to the payment method to be used by customers, and also relates to a payment apparatus and a payment method that use such automatic assignment apparatus.
EP-A-1081628 (JP-A-11-259588) as a prior art discloses a payment system in which a payment means to be used for the payment of transaction amount is chosen among many payment means such as a debit card and a credit card. The object of EP-A-1081628 is to enable depositing and withdrawing of money from a bank account that is most advantageous to a customer out of a plurality of bank accounts coupled with each other. EP-A-1081628 discloses: means for managing account information which manages a plurality of information on accounts opened by a customer for a plurality of banking facility processing apparatuses; means for setting priority which determines the priority for a plurality of accounts; means for selecting transaction account, upon receiving a transaction request, which selects an account with highest priority among a plurality of accounts as the transaction account; and means for manipulating money information which executes operations according to a transaction request on the money information of the above-stated transaction account selected by the transaction account selection means.
Some payment methods are provided with usage restrictions on shops, commodities and amounts. For example, some payment methods to use credit cards are provided with usage restrictions called the maximum credit amount regarding the upper limit of payment amount. Such point-winning payment methods that are managed by mass retailers of electrical equipment are only be usable for transactions at shops that are operated by the point-issuing companies. Payment methods to use local money can only be used for transactions at shops located in specified areas. Some payment methods to use cash vouchers include those that can only be used for transactions at shops specified at the back of the vouchers, or those that can only be used for transaction of specified commodities such as books, stationeries and liquors.
The payment methods to use cash vouchers include those that have usage restrictions on payment amount wherein the vouchers are only usable for transactions in a certain limited unit of money. For example, a payment method based on the payment unit of 1,000 yen exists, wherein, for purchasing a 1,200-yen commodity, a voucher can be use for the portion of 1,000 yen, but the voucher is not usable for the remaining 200 yen, and the remaining 200 yen must be settled by other payment methods.
According to EP-A-1081628, it is possible to select a payment method to be used for the payment by suing the priority that is defined before the transaction is executed. However, with EP-A-1081628, since the selection of payment method is executed without considering information on a transaction and the usage restriction on a payment method, there may be a possibility to select a payment method that cannot be used for a transaction executed.